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Haryana fight it out against Karnataka

Haryana kept themselves in content_cnion for a place in the SF after fighting tooth and nail against Karnataka.

Bangalore: Haryana kept themselves in content_cnion for a place in the semifinals after fighting tooth and nail against Karnataka on an eventful second day of their Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match. Failing to consolidate on the 152-run partnership produced by their openers, they came back strongly to take three Karnataka second innings wickets.

Chasing Karnataka's meek total of 151, Haryana made 272 to establish a 121-run lead. Embarrassed by their meek show in the first innings, Karnataka did relatively better to make 122 for three before stumps were drawn for the day. In effect, Karnataka are one run ahead with seven wickets in hand.

A lot will depend on skipper Ganesh Satish and Amit Verma if Karnataka hope to run up a huge total and then bowl out Haryana cheaply in the fourth innings. Robin Uthappa made a 46-ball 53 (six fours and one six) before being trapped leg before the wicket by Sachin Rana. It was a day of riveting cricket as 13 wickets tumbled (one to a run out) on a sporting track.

Haryana, resuming at their overnight 120 for no loss, lost wickets at frequent intervals, helping Karnataka to claw back into the game. Barely had they had gone past Karnataka's first innings total of 151, Nitin Saini (69, 13 fours) perished to an ambitious shot off Stuart Binny.

There was a virtual march past by Haryana batsmen as medium pacer N C Aiyappa ripped through the middle order with accurate seam bowling. Aiyappa had Pratik Pawar (2), Sachin Rana (0) and Priyank Tehlan (0) nicking to Gautam, raking in three wickets in five balls.

embellished with 13 hits to the fence. He lasted 276 minutes at the wicket while consuming 195 balls. Left-arm spinner K P Appanna struck again off the next delivery to leave the Haryana innings in tatters at 188 for seven.

If Karnataka had hoped to restrict the lead to within 50 runs, they ran into a gutsy combination of Amit Mishra (49) and Mohit Sharma (32) who produced 74 vital runs for the eighth wicket. Mohit smashed six boundaries before offering off-spinner Sunil Raju his only wicket of the innings.

The Haryana innings folded up moments after Mishra was trapped in front of the wicket by Binny, who was the most successful bowler for Karnataka.

Indore: Young Kaustubh Pawar displayed maturity beyond his years as his unbeaten century saw Mumbai surpass Madhya Pradesh's score with ease, in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal, here on Tuesday.

At stumps, Mumbai were comfortably placed at 346 for seven, with a sizeable lead of 154 runs. Pawar anchored the innings remaining undefeated on 160 hitting 19 fours in process. Mumbai, who were reduced 60 for five on Monday, owe it to Pawar's determined effort as they cross the first innings score without much fuss.

On the day, the two most significant partnerships that Pawar was engaged in were 79 for the sixth wicket with Hiken Shah (41) and 78 for seventh wicket with Dhawal Kulkarni. When Shah was caught by Zafar Ali to become TP Sudhindra's (4/78) third victim, Mumbai were reduced to 139 for six -- still needing 54 runs to get the first innings lead.

With semi-final berth all but clinched, Wasim Jaffer would expect that his bowlers would ensure that they don't have to bat last in this match.

Chennai: Jagannathan Kaushik ripped apart the rival batting line-up with a five-wicket haul as Tamil Nadu put one foot in the Ranji Trophy semifinals after bundling out Maharashtra for 232 and then reaching a solid 259 for three in their Ranji Trophy quarter-final contest.

Maharashtra began the day at a decent 204 for four but lost the last six wickets for a mere 28 runs with Kaushik devastating the visitors' batting line-up. In reply, Tamil Nadu started off superbly, with opener Abhinav Mukund looking set for his seasons third century. But he missed out on his hundred by five runs when he was adjudged leg-before by Ajinkya Joshi.

Mukund (95) added 173 runs for the first wicket with Murali Vijay, who scored 79. S Badrinath (35) and wicket-Keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik were coasting along well but the latter was out for 30. Badrinath and K Vasudeva Das (1) were at the crease when stumps were drawn on day two as Tamil Nadu has so far taken a 27-run lead.

Earlier, Kaushik wreaked havoc as he scalped overnight batsman Sangram Atikhar (50) in the very first ball of the day by having him caught behind. Then in his third over of the day, Kaushik dismissed Kedar Jadhav (3), Ahinkya Joshi (0) and Akshay Darekar (0) to virtually seal the fate of Maharashtra.

Hyderabad: The visitors got an early breakthrough as hosts ended the day 35 for two. Opener P Akshat Reddy (12) and T20 specialist Thiru Suman (0) returned to the pavilion and they were dismissed by Pankaj Singh and Sumeet Mathur respectively.

Skipper Dwarka Ravi Teja (23, 22b, 3x4) and Naidu (0) were at the crease when the stumps were drawn for the day.

Earlier, resuming at overnight score of 220 for five, the visitors went on to pile up 421 in 167.1 overs due to patient 142 (450b, 9x4, 1x6) by Chopra and Yagnik's useful 101 (230b, 10x4).

Pankaj Singh (42) and Vivek Yadav (33) were the other batsmen to make a good contribution to the total score of Rajasthan. It was Hyderabad bowler Mehdi Hasan's five-wicket haul that helped the hosts dismiss the other Rajasthan batmen from making big scores. Hasan's victims included Chopra too.

Among other Hyderabad bowlers, A Lalith Mohan and Kanishk Naidu scalped two wickets each, while Anwar Khan also got a wicket.